1981 Fleer Baseball

It took 18 years, but Fleer finally returned to the baseball card arena in 1981 with a modern set featuring contemporary players. This happened after a legal ruling which took away Topps's perceived monopoly of packaging cards with gum, allowing both Fleer and Donruss (hitherto known for their non-sports offerings) to begin printing baseball card sets. This 1981 Fleer set included 660 cards.

Card fronts featured a player photo surrounded by a thin colored border, which was in turn surrounded by a thicker white border along the card edges. The player name and position were in a small colored block below the photo, with a cartoon baseball image containing the team name to the left.

Card backs had a black block at the top holding the player's name, team, and position in yellow ink; flanking this were a circle to the left holding the card number, and one to the right with the player's batting average or ERA (or sometimes nothing). Below this was a wihte block (with yellow border holding the player's basic biographical info) with career statistics.

The 1981 Fleer card set was produced on white card stock.

There are errors in this set (mostly statistical), which were fixed on subsequent printings; the higher price for the uncorrected cards is not reflected in the set price.

Prominent players in this set include Fernando Valenzuela (rookie), Reggie Jackson, Pete Rose, Mike Schmidt, George Brett, Nolan Ryan, Jeff Reardon (rookie), Harold Baines (rookie), Dan Ainge (rookie), and Rickey Henderson.

Although not an expensive set to own, when it was released this set (along with Donruss's 1981 offering) was welcomed by collectors who wanted more of a choice in their baseball card purchases than just Topps. The distinctive red packs holding 17 cards were a bargain for kids of the time.